no words are gonna keep us dry
by TessaStarDean
Summary: The storm breaks. NathanAudrey


She thought she had grown used to the weather. The storm moved in without any warning though, rolling black clouds rushing across the sky, somehow darkening and sharpening all of the colors around her. The wind picked up and she could see lightning flashing in the distance. A deep rumble reached her ears as her hair whipped around her face.

She realized they weren't going to make it to the truck before the storm found them.

"Come on," Nathan said beside her, his voice rising slightly to be heard above the moving air. "We can make the bridge."

They'd barely gone four steps when the rain reached them. It was like someone pouring a watering can right on top of their heads, the drops heavy and cold. Audrey raised her arms over her head in a futile attempt to hold them back, but then there was suddenly less of it falling on her and she looked up in confusion.

Nathan had shed his jacket and was holding it over them as they ran, unfazed by the fact that his grey t-shirt was completely soaked through. His long legs could have carried him to shelter in half the time but he tempered his steps to match hers, and by the time they got under the bridge, he was dripping wet from head to toe. Audrey was far from dry herself, but his jacket had protected her head from the worst of it.

They stood there as the storm crashed around them, both breathing heavily from the run and the adrenaline pounding through their bodies. It was a cold rain, and Audrey wrapped her arms around herself as Nathan held the now-useless jacket in his right hand. He stared out at the road and she found herself staring at his profile in the dim light. Water streamed down from his hair, tracing the lines of his face as it found its way down his neck and under his shirt. Her eyes followed as many paths as they could, traveling down his shoulders to where the water dripped from the edges of his sleeves onto his arms, continuing all the way to his fingertips.

She was so caught up that she didn't realize he had turned back to face her, his chest still moving up and down deeply. He should have recovered by now from the run, but as her eyes rose up slowly to meet his, she was struck by the thought that maybe he was breathless for another reason.

She'd always thought his eyes held storms, but she had assumed that they were mostly echoes of past downpours he had endured. What she saw now, though, was a storm in the process of breaking, waves crashing against the shore as they picked up strength from the wind.

Her own breath suddenly refused to come.

"Audrey."

His voice was thunder, broken and desperate. It rolled through her and coiled somewhere in the pit of her stomach, tightening, tugging, holding her captive. His jacket fell in a tangled mess on the ground and his hands were on her face, skin sliding against skin. Those waves were going to drag her under if she didn't surface now, if she didn't kick her legs and propel herself to the top...

His lips touched hers and she drowned.

She never thought it could feel this way. The rain was pounding inside of her head now, surging through her and washing her clean. It ran through her veins, propelling her forward as she clutched at his biceps, letting him in since he seemed to be there already. She wondered if maybe he had been there all along. The thunder echoed in her heart and the lightning flashed behind closed eyes. The electricity arced across her skin, making the skin rise up in little bumps and sending a shiver down her spine that left her an odd mix of hot and cold.

His storm became hers and his hands slid down, arms wrapping around her body and pulling her against him even as he pressed her into the stone of the bridge behind her. She felt like she was lost in a driving rain with no idea which direction would lead her out. But it didn't matter. Because she knew where she was. His body anchored her, wet clothes clinging to both of them and holding them steady.

Audrey wondered if this was what it would be like every time. If this was what it was like for him to feel someone after being numb for so long. She wondered if the storm would fade away.

Nathan pulled back slightly, lips ghosting over hers as they both struggled to catch their breath. When he came back again, it was slow and deep, measured and steady. But that current underneath was still strong, running in her blood and across every nerve ending in her body.

The storm raged on.


End file.
